Gel Stain Garage Door Refinish

Our garage door faces the east and gets full sun during the day. This caused lots of discoloration with the paint. It also doesn’t help that I’m pretty sure the previous owners used interior flat paint on the door.

With that being said I knew I had to paint it. I searched for the year and a half that we lived here trying to figure out what to do with it. I saw many photos of gel stain used to make it look like wood. I loved this idea and decided to try it out.

BEFORE

AND AFTER 

So much better!!

Here’s how I did it….

Materials Needed:

Minwax Gel Stain – I used Hickory & 1 can covered the garage door

Paint brushes (perferrably old ones or cheap ones so you can throw away)

Soap

Bucket

Rags

Hose

Get started…

Start by spraying the garage door and cleaning it thoroughly with soap. I used dish soap. When it’s good and clean rinse well. Let it completely dry.

I forgot to take a before photo and took this after I started cleaning. Seems like our door was painted with interior flat paint from the previous owners. When I started washing it most of the paint came off.

Start painting…

Once it’s dried your ready to start painting! I used an old paint brush and started on the inside squares of the door. This stuff is thick and a little goes a long way.

Next I painted outside the many squares

Then I painted the horizontal and vertical lines to finish it off

You can see where it needed a second coat. I also ended up painting the wood trim. Mostly because the old paint looked terrible. It’s been 7 months and it still looks great!

Since it was so easy to paint and went on smooth without any drips I decided to use it on our front door. The front door was terrible and sun faded from our house facing the east.

Yes, it’s dark and looks even darker in the photo but it looks way better! I also stained right over that gold plate that was at the bottom of the door. And yes that’s a Jack Skellington wreath for Halloween. Pattern is not mine but can be found HERE.